Text 34997, 92 rader
Skriven 2016-01-10 21:06:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
Ärende: Holiday Trip 2
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On Dec. 25 Raine's turkey dinner was equally delicious and
sufficiently different so as to please everyone. Her dressing was
spicier and loaded with fatty sausage meat. The sides were English,
French and Newfy in nature rather than Ukrainian. We had among other
things a first course of Jiggs dinner (Newfy salt beef belly and
riblets, stewed with potato, carrot, cabbage, turnip and turnip
greens served with pease pudding and figgy duff (a raisin and
molasses steamed pudding), mustard pickles and pickled beets) served
before the bird. It's heavy stuff and meal in itself if you're not
careful with portion control.

(The story behind the Jiggs Dinner tradition ... between Chuck and
Lyle there was briefly Tommy from Port Aux Basques. When Lexi last
saw Tommy in Yellowknife she told him that Chuck had been demoted
from Dad to Father and Lyle promoted to Dad. Tommy said in mock
sorrow, "So what am I then?" and without blinking an eye or pausing
a second she said, "Oh, you're My Best Tommy and always will be"
which made him beam from ear to ear.)

After the bird there were rich shortbread cookies (my Mom's recipe,
made by Roslind), mince meat tarts, scotch and port. There was about
a 50% overlap in guests.

Both turkeys were from a Hutterite colony (a branch of Anabaptists
who live life much like the Amish do), They were organic (but not
certified so), free range, mature birds ranging from 24 to 28
pounds each. The meat is much darker and far more tasty than that of
any commercial supermarket bird. I happened to spot a label: $2.50
per pound and so very reasonable and good value.

A tale of two beers:

Alley Kat Amber brewed by Alley Kat Brewery of Edmonton (not to be
confused with Alleycat which is made by the Lost Coast Brewery and
Cafe in California): a malty, lightly hopped English style brown ale
with a touch of caramel sweetness. It doesn't aim for the hard core
beer geeks but appeals to the macro lager crowd like Raine and Neekha
who think Bud Light Apple beer to be the apex of the brewing art;
it's craft beer with training wheels. B-. I thought it was pretty
good until we cracked a ...

Rail Ale Nut Brown from the Howe Sound Inn & Brewing Company in
Squamish. B.C.: richer, thicker, deep brown, generous, stable head,
very flavourful, malty sweet, with hints of chocolate and molasses,
rather than caramel. Comes in one quart bottles with resealable wire
bale (swing top) enclosures. $6 a pop and worth every penny. I had
four of them over the course of the holidays, generally split with a
beer loving friend. I had promised to split the last one with Scotch
swilling Raymond who said he was fond of dark beer on occasion but
ended up having the last one with Rebecca after seeing her with an
Alley Kat and learning that she too liked dark beers and as she was
younger and cuter she won. I give it an A.
      
We had plenty of wild treats at Ray's place as well as Lyle's.

One of Ray's New Year's Eve treats was very rare blackened moose
tenderloin medallions. Also plenty of venison sausage and jerky,
supplemented with his own beef and pork jerky. The pork jerky was
interesting as I hadn't had that before: he sliced a whole boneless
pork loin crosswise into 3/16" inch thick slices with a meat slicer,
did a rub that was mainly Back Eddy spice, let it cure overnight,
smoked it for just an hour and oven finished it. He pulled half of
it when it was still a bit moist and would need refrigeration and
took the other half to a leathery dryness. I preferred the
slightly moist version; it reminded me of back bacon but both were
good. It was his first attempt with pork although he has been doing
caribou, moose, venison, elk and beef for a couple of decades. He
thinks the next batch will get a mustard seed rub.

His dad Raymond is an ardent fisherman living on Vancouver Island
who gets to travel a lot. He brought with him yet another version of
deer sausage, sweet brined hard smoked salmon jerky (Squamish candy)
and some smoked Broughton Island char. Qikiqtarjuaq or Broughton
Island is a small hamlet located on an island of the same name in
the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut just off the east coast of Baffin
Island.

Ray also had Hutterite eggs from organic free range chickens for
breakfast every morning; they had deep orange yolks (a sign of good
diet) that stood up high (a sign of freshness) and were the tastiest
eggs I have eaten since I was kid growing up in the country!



YK Jim


... Tattoos? You don't put bumper stickers on a Ferrari!

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